France’s Sofy Major has been putting their own spin on noise rock for the better part of fourteen years, with each of their three full lengths touching upon slightly different elements while maintaining that lumbering, abrasive base. A few years have passed since 2015’s Waste and the group is now ready to unleash their fourth full length Total Dump which pushes them outwards towards an even wider range of styles. With an equal balance between slower groove heavy numbers and fast paced abrasive track, Sofy Major has more variety to offer in their writing than ever before but also has the hooks to back it up.
Stylistically this album comes in somewhere between the lumbering basslines and jagged edges that bands like Melvins and Unsane have to offer with melodies that recall Torche and a whole slew of 90s alternative rock. Total Dump showcases its heavier side first, with the title track letting the bass and drums create a room shaking, dense sound early on while the guitars twist and turn over top of it. While you might be fooled into thinking that this type of lumbering, mid-tempo grooves will end up dominating the record it doesn’t take long before Sofy Major shakes things up. The second track ups the tempo and the abrasiveness, heading into metallic tonality that wouldn’t be out of place on a sludge album. But in addition to kicking your ass with these bottom-heavy grooves, the instrumentals also have melodic hooks that channel the best of 90s alternative rock and provide some slightly mellower aesthetics. Keeping with the band’s sense of humor that they’ve displayed in the past; these songs also have some of the best titles. “Cream It” has spacey guitar work that wouldn’t sound out of place on Failure’s Fantastic Planet, only with an extremely heavy noise rock groove supporting it. And “Franky Butthole” has an alternative rock guitar hook that would’ve made for an easy radio single two decades ago. Where some of Sofy Major’s previous albums started to fizzle out slightly by the end, there’s a consistent amount of quality riffs that keeps Total Dump engaging for its entirety.
Noise rock is one of those genres where the instrumentals can vary widely but the vocals often come in at a singular pitch. This is an area where these guys have been branching out over the course of their career, as each release has moved closer towards a mixture of cleaner singing ranges and aggressive scream/singing. Total Dump gives you the best of both worlds, as even when the vocals mellow out they still have a bit of a bite to them. In fact, this is easily the strongest that Sofy Major’s clean ranges have sounded and they soar over the instrumentals with ease and offer just as many hooks as the guitar leads and bass grooves.
Sofy Major will probably still remind you of a slew of different bands in the noise rock spectrum, but they’ve continued coming into their own and have offered their strongest and most versatile album to date. Total Dump strikes that perfect balance between abrasive and melodic and doesn’t peak too early, giving you just as many stand-out riffs towards the end as it does at the beginning. Most of you might not typically think of France when it comes to noise rock, but between this album and the upcoming Membrane record in February you’ll want to change that. Total Dump is out now on Corpse Flower Records, Deadlight Entertainment, and Antena Krzyku.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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